Our Faith

October 14, 2022 | catholicnewsherald.com

The first apparition of Mary

Our Lady of the Pillar is patroness of Spain and all Hispanics

Our Lady of the Pillar (officially in Spanish, “Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza”) is recognized as the first Marian apparition in the history of Christianity and is the only one that happened while the Virgin Mary was still alive. Although it was technically a bilocation of Our Lady, because she was living with John the Apostle in Jerusalem, it is still regarded as an apparition by the tradition of the Church.

According to tradition, James the Greater, brother of St. John the Evangelist, traveled with great effort to Roman Hispania (modern-day Spain) to evangelize the local tribes. He not only confronted great difficulties, but he also saw very little apostolic fruits of conversion. Tradition says that when he was at his lowest point of discouragement, in 40 A.D., while he was sitting by the banks of the Ebro River in Zaragoza (back then known as Caesaraugusta), Mary appeared to him accompanied by thousands of angels to console and encourage him.

The Virgin Mary, with the Child Jesus in her arms and standing on a pillar, asked St. James and his eight disciples to build a church on the site, promising that “it will stand from that moment until the end of time in order that God may work miracles and wonders through my intercession for all those who place themselves under my patronage.”

The church of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza is the first church dedicated to Mary in history, and it remains standing to

this day, having survived invasions and wars. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the Communists dropped three bombs on the church from an airplane. The bombs tore through the roof and hit the floor, but none of them exploded. The three now deactivated bombs are currently on display in one of the basilica’s walls. Our Lady is also said to have given the small wooden statue of the apparition to St. James. It now stands on the pillar she arrived on. The wooden statue is a relatively simple image 15 inches high, standing on a jasper pillar 5.9 feet tall. But the crown adorning her head is a masterpiece. It was made in 44 days by 33 workmen. The sun-like crown is made of 2,836 diamonds cut triangularly, 2,725 roses, 145 pearls, 74 emeralds, 62 rubies and 46 sapphires. The crown of the baby Jesus is identical in shape, although not in size. The basilica has been redesigned and expanded several times during its history. The current structure, completed in the 17th century, includes 11 brightly colored tiled domes and is the second biggest church in Spain. “St. James and his disciples adoring Our Lady of the Pillar,” by Francis Goya (c. 1775-’80) Nuestra Señora del Pilar is not only the patroness of Spain but also of all Hispanic peoples, since it was on Oct. 12, 1492, the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, that Christopher Columbus arrived on American land and the first Mass in the Americas was celebrated. — Alejandro Bermudez, Catholic News Agency

Daily Scripture readings

OCT. 16-22

Sunday: Exodus 17:8-13, 2 Timothy 3:144:2, Luke 18:1-8; Monday (St. Ignatius of Antioch): Ephesians 2:1-10, Luke 12:13-21; Tuesday (St. Luke): 2 Timothy 4:10-17b, Luke 10:1-9; Wednesday (Sts. John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues and Companions): Ephesians 3:2-12, Isaiah 12:2-6, Luke 12:3948; Thursday (St. Paul of the Cross): Ephesians 3:14-21, Luke 12:49-53; Friday: Ephesians 4:1-6, Luke 12:54-59; Saturday (St. John Paul II): Ephesians 4:7-16, Luke 13:1-9 OCT. 23-29

Sunday: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18, Luke 18:9-14; Monday (St. Anthony Mary Claret): Ephesians 4:32-5:8, Luke 13:10-17; Tuesday: Ephesians 5:2133, Luke 13:18-21; Wednesday: Ephesians 6:1-9, Luke 13:22-30; Thursday: Ephesians 6:10-20, Luke 13:31-35; Friday (Sts. Simon and Jude): Ephesians 2:19-22, Luke 6:12-16; Saturday: Philippians 1:18b-26, Luke 14:1, 7-11 OCT. 30-NOV. 5

Sunday: Wisdom 11:22-12:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2, Luke 19:1-10; Monday: Philippians 2:1-4, Luke 14:12-14; Tuesday (All Saints): Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14, 1 John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12a; Wednesday (All Souls’ Day): Wisdom 3:1-9, Romans 5:5-11, John 6:37-40; Thursday (St. Martin de Porres): Philippians 3:3-8a, Luke 15:1-10; Friday (St. Charles Borromeo): Philippians 3:17-4:1, Luke 16:1-8; Saturday: Philippians 4:10-19, Luke 16:9-15

Our faith

CATHOLIC NEWS HERALDI 3

Pope Francis

Complaints, coupled with inaction, are poison

Complaints without any desire to do anything about the situation are poison, Pope Francis said. Complaining can be “a poison to the soul, a poison to life” and “almost a sin” when it prevents people from building and strengthening “the desire to move forward,” he said during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 12. The pope continued his series of talks about discernment by reflecting on the role of desire in discovering what one truly wants or needs in his or her life. Desire, he said, “is the compass to understand where I am and where I am going,” and it can indicate whether a person has just given up and is “standing still.” It is important to be able to recognize sincere desire, which is not a momentary craving, but is something that “knows how to touch deeply the chords of our being, which is why it is not extinguished in the face of difficulties or setbacks,” he said.

“It is like when we are thirsty: if we do not find something to drink, we do not give up; on the contrary, the yearning increasingly occupies our thoughts and actions, until we become willing to make any sacrifice in order to quench it,” he added. “Desire makes you strong, it makes you courageous, it makes you keep going forward, because you want to arrive” at that goal. A sincere desire is what helps people embark on “a successful, coherent and lasting project,” he said.

Modifying a popular saying, Pope Francis said the road to hell is paved with good intentions and no action. “The era in which we live seems to promote the maximum freedom of choice, but at the same time it atrophies desire,” the pope said. “We are bombarded by a thousand proposals, projects, possibilities, which risk distracting us and not allowing us to calmly evaluate what we really want,” he said. For example, people who stare at their telephone, always “turned outward, toward the other,” always living in the moment and never stopping to think about what they yearn for. “Desire cannot grow in this way.” But, the pope said, “by engaging in dialogue with the Lord, we learn to understand what we truly want from life.” That is why Jesus engages with the paralytic by the pool, who has been waiting for years for healing, but is not proactive and only grumbles, he said.

“Beware, because complaints are a poison,” he said, “they stop the desire to go forward. Ask God to help us know our deepest desire, that God Himself has placed in our heart, and perhaps the Lord will give us the strength to make it come true,” Pope Francis said. “Because He, too, has a great desire for us: to make us share in His fullness of life.”